Chapter 159: The Dimensional Space

The farther Kent went, the more astonishing creatures he discovered.

There were Flying Serpents, high-level wind-element magical beasts.

Sludge Beasts, rare creatures possessing both dark and earth affinities.

Crystal Butterflies, magical beasts of the crystal element.

Gemstone Grasshoppers, mutated crystal-element magical beasts.

And countless other strange low-level creatures, many of which had either become exceedingly rare in the outside world or had already gone completely extinct.

Kent could hardly take his eyes off them.

But what puzzled him most was that nearly every magical beast here had some connection to alchemy.

The wings of the Flying Serpent, for example, were a key ingredient in a magical potion Kent had never even heard of before—

a Flight Potion.

According to the alchemical knowledge he had inherited, drinking such a potion could temporarily grant a person the ability to fly for roughly five minutes.

There was, however, one requirement.

The user had to possess at least the strength of an intermediate-level professional.

For ordinary people, the potion would be useless.

The bodily fluids of the Crystal Butterfly were equally remarkable.

They could be refined into a defensive magical compound capable of doubling the protection of whatever part of the body it was applied to.

Unlike ordinary potions, however, it was not meant to be swallowed.

Instead, it was spread directly over the area requiring protection, forming something almost like a magical coating.

As for the Gemstone Grasshopper, its teeth were considered among the finest natural tools in existence for cutting and shaping precious gems.

The more Kent observed, the clearer the pattern became.

Almost every magical beast inside this dimensional space belonged to one of two categories.

Either it was extraordinarily rare—

or it no longer existed anywhere else in the world.

And most of them were important ingredients required for refining uncommon or precious magical potions.

Kent continued forward with growing suspicion.

After everything he had already seen, even wonders that would have stunned him earlier were beginning to feel almost ordinary.

What bothered him even more was the behavior of the magical beasts.

None of them paid any attention to him.

Not one.

They wandered through the grasslands, forests, and fields as though Kent simply did not exist.

The entire place felt increasingly strange.

Rare magical plants.

Extinct magical beasts.

Carefully maintained land.

Everything seemed deliberate.

Organized.

Almost cultivated.

Just as Kent was wondering what sort of place he had truly entered, a figure gradually appeared in the distance.

His eyes immediately brightened.

Finally.

A person.

He didn’t care who it was.

As long as someone here could speak, Kent intended to find out exactly where he was and who had created this place.

He quickly approached.

But the closer he came, the stranger the figure looked.

Kent stopped.

“This is… a puppet?”

What stood before him was not a living being at all.

It was a metal construct.

Its entire body had been forged from dark silver metal, giving it the appearance of an ancient knight statue forgotten in the depths of some ruined fortress.

Its torso and limbs were covered in overlapping slabs of heavy armor.

Dark red runes had been embedded into the seams between the plates, glowing and fading rhythmically with every movement.

There were no visible gears at its joints.

Instead, exposed metal ball-and-socket mechanisms rotated with a deep, dry grinding sound.

Its head was shaped like a smooth metal helm without a single recognizable facial feature.

Only two narrow slits broke the otherwise featureless surface.

Within them burned pale blue soul-fire.

Set into the center of its chest was a dark-golden core the size of a man’s fist.

From that core, thin lines of magical energy spread across the puppet’s entire body like cracks through stone.

Every time it took a step, its iron boots crushed tiny fragments of gravel beneath them.

Now and then, wisps of cold mist escaped from between the gaps in its armor.

A massive axe rested across one shoulder.

Without paying Kent the slightest attention, the puppet continued walking toward the nearby forest.

Kent’s curiosity immediately got the better of him.

He followed.

The puppet did not react.

It simply continued forward as though Kent were no more important than the wind.

Before long, it entered a small section of woodland.

Kent was still wondering what it intended to do when the puppet’s eye-slits suddenly flared with blue light.

A low, mechanical voice echoed from within its metal body.

“Height exceeds prescribed limit by five centimeters.”

A brief pause followed.

“Remove.”

Whoosh!

Kent barely saw the movement.

All he caught was a blurred afterimage.

In the next instant, the enormous tree standing before the puppet exploded apart.

The entire trunk was reduced to fragments in the blink of an eye.

Wood chips scattered through the air before raining down across the forest floor.

Kent stared.

The puppet lowered its axe.

“Task completed.”

Its flat mechanical voice sounded once more.

Then it turned around and calmly continued deeper into the forest.

Kent’s mouth fell open so wide that two eggs could probably have fit inside.

In his experience, puppets existed for one purpose—

combat.

Yet the puppet before him was chopping trees.

Only now did Kent finally understand who had been trimming the grasslands and maintaining the vegetation throughout this dimensional space.

And honestly, calling that thing a puppet almost felt wrong.

It was more like one of the robots Kent remembered from movies in his previous life.

Except this one was absurdly powerful.

The speed it had displayed just moments ago was enough to prove that.

Even with Kent’s exceptionally powerful mental perception, he had managed to catch only a blurred afterimage of the puppet’s movement.

An ordinary person probably wouldn’t have seen it move at all.

“Holy hell… I’m rich!”

Kent finally recovered from his shock and shouted excitedly.

No one knew how many years this metal puppet had existed here.

Most likely, it had been one of the magical constructs left behind by the original owner to maintain this dimensional space.

After all, a dimensional space was not a true natural world.

It required constant care.

Without someone—or something—to maintain its internal balance, such a small artificial ecosystem would eventually collapse.

And once that happened, everything within it would disappear, leaving behind nothing more than ruins.

By the time Kent finished thinking through all of this, the puppet had already vanished somewhere into the forest.

Kent wasn’t particularly worried.

His real destination was still the enormous building in the distance.

And until he understood exactly how this place operated, he had no intention of touching any of the precious magical plants along the road.

The same went for the rare magical beasts wandering nearby.

He could look.

But he didn’t dare touch.

If one of those puppets suddenly identified him as a thief, things could become very unpleasant.

Kent had no way of knowing whether the original owner had built some kind of anti-theft protocol into the magical formations controlling these constructs.

So despite seeing entire hillsides covered in priceless magical plants and rare magical beast cubs wandering freely through the fields, Kent could only comfort himself.

“Don’t rush.”

He sighed.

“Good things come to those who wait.”

Kent continued forward on foot.

Several hours passed.

He knew wind-element magic and could have traveled much faster, but in an unfamiliar environment like this, he preferred caution over speed.

The closer he came to the distant structure, the clearer its outline became.

Eventually, Kent could finally see it properly.

It was a massive castle.

The building occupied an enormous area and had been constructed from some unknown gray-brown material.

Kent had no idea what it was.

But the first impression it gave him could be summed up in a single word—

overwhelming.

Kent approached carefully.

Then he stepped inside.

The interior was astonishingly clean.

And somehow, that only made the place feel even more unsettling.

Until now, Kent had not encountered a single living person.

The walls seemed to have once been decorated with paintings or other works of art, but whatever images had originally existed there were now so faded that they had become almost impossible to recognize.

The magical crystal lamps mounted overhead had long since lost their cores, leaving behind nothing but empty crystal covers.

And yet—

on the long dining table stood several vases.

Inside them were fresh flowers.

Kent suddenly felt as though he had wandered into one of the vampire castles from old legends.

Those castles were said to be empty during the day, only coming alive after nightfall.

Of course, Kent had no idea whether this dimensional space even had a true night.

Still, after looking around the castle, he became increasingly certain of one thing.

There were no living people here.

The artwork on the walls could only have faded after an unimaginably long period of time.

The puppets might be able to clean floors, trim plants, and maintain the environment—

but they certainly couldn’t restore ancient paintings.

As for the fresh flowers on the dining table…

those had almost certainly been placed there by one of the puppets.

Kent was not discouraged.

If anything, his curiosity grew stronger.

He began searching the castle.

Before long, he found what appeared to be a study.

Kent pushed open the door.

The moment it swung inward, a gentle breeze brushed across his face.

A faint fluctuation of wind-element magic spread through the room.

Kent’s eyes narrowed slightly.

The magical formation here was still functioning.

He stepped inside and looked around.

Several enormous bookshelves lined the walls.

Every shelf was packed with scrolls made from beast hide.

The sheer number of them was staggering.

Then Kent noticed the desk beside a large crystal window.

A thick beast-hide volume lay upon it.

Kent walked over.

He opened the first few pages.

Then his expression changed.

“What is this? A diary…”

He flipped through several more pages.

His eyes gradually brightened.

It wasn’t merely a diary.

It was the personal diary of an alchemist.